Washington, D.C. – Tensions between American and Israeli leaders are not often expressed in public.
But this week, US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exchanged barbs over a plan by Netanyahu’s far-right government to overhaul Israel’s judiciary.
While the Israeli occupation was not part of the back-and-forth game between the two leaders, analysts have said the public discord could provide an opportunity to raise awareness in the US of the plight of the Palestinians.
It could also further normalize criticism of Israel in US politics, said Palestinian-American analyst Yousef Munayyer, who said Biden’s “significant statement” against Netanyahu’s judicial reform plan will have a “much broader impact” than just that issue.
Munayyer said Biden’s direct criticism will fuel already growing skepticism — especially among Democrats — about the idea that the close relationship between the US and Israel is based on “shared values” of democracy and freedom.
This “is the latest step in exposing that idea of shared values as a foundational myth of the relationship, which, like so many foundational myths, once people realize it’s not true, they completely rethink their positions on these issues.” evaluate,” Munayyer told Al Jazeera.
‘Ask deeper’
Citing Jewish-American opposition to Israel’s controversial judicial review proposal, Biden warned the Israeli prime minister on Tuesday that his administration “cannot continue on this path.” Netanyahu hit back in a public statement, saying Israel is a sovereign country that makes its own decisions.
The Israeli legal proposal, which critics say limits the courts’ oversight of the government, had shocked Israeli politics and sparked protests across the country. Netanyahu delayed the proposal this week due to widespread protests and pressure from the US, but the plan has not been scrapped.
Even some staunch Israel supporters in the US, including many members of the Democratic Congress and prominent Jewish organizations, have denounced judicial reform in a rare critique of the Israeli government.
“If implemented, these reforms will dramatically weaken Israel’s democracy, removing all meaningful checks and balances that provide separation of powers — a backbone of secure democracies — Reform Judaism religious leaders said in a statement. statement in January.
While Palestinians have been largely absent from this debate, Palestinian rights advocates say the unusual criticism of the Israeli government in mainstream American circles may help spark further conversations about the land and its treatment of Palestinians.
They note that Palestinians are gaining more sympathy in the US, especially among youth and Democrats — a trend they hope the crisis will reinforce.
James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a think tank in Washington, D.C., said that while Israel’s internal crisis won’t change the Biden administration’s overall stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it will ultimately impact the American public. could influence opinion.
Biden, a self-described Zionist, has pushed for unconditional American support for Israel throughout his decades-long political career, despite his commitment to putting human rights at the center of his foreign policy as president. Israel, accused of imposing apartheid on Palestinians by major human rights groups, including Amnesty International, receives at least $3.8 billion in military aid from the US each year.
Zogby said when a US president confronts Israel as Biden did this week, “it shows it can be done”.
“And it shows that Israel is responding to pressure,” he told Al Jazeera. “You also see hundreds of thousands of Israelis demonstrating against their government, all of which adds to deeper questions in the US about what is going on in Israel.”
At the same time, some lawmakers in Congress are trying to shift the focus back to the Palestinian issue when it comes to Israel.
US Congressman Jamaal Bowman and Senator Bernie Sanders are leading an effort to demand that the Biden administration not use US weapons in Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, the Jewish Currents news website reported Wednesday. While it largely focuses on Israeli abuses against Palestinians, the letter also invokes Netanyahu’s proposal for judicial reform.
“This Israeli government’s anti-democratic mission to dismantle the rule of law threatens both Israelis and Palestinians,” it said. “In addition to explicitly hateful, anti-Palestinian policies, this government is seeking to destroy the independent Israeli judiciary.”
attractive to the American public
But for the most part, American politicians have focused their criticism on Netanyahu’s reform plan, not his administration’s treatment of Palestinians. In fact, US officials often reaffirm their “ironclad” commitment to Israel.
Like Biden, several Democrats in Congress have expressed concern about Israeli “democracy” and praised the protesters without mentioning the country’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, where millions of Palestinians live under the control of the Israeli government without basic civil rights.
Being pro-Israel is pro-democracy.
A strong and independent judiciary is crucial to any democracy, including Israel’s.
I applaud the thousands of Israelis who showed their opposition to Netanyahu’s actions.
Israel cannot become an authoritarian state. pic.twitter.com/MpiYAHrjNC
— Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (@RepDean) March 29, 2023
Palestinians have also been excluded from the demands of so-called “pro-democracy demonstrations” in Israel. Israel’s Supreme Court, whose powers have rallied anti-Netanyahu protesters to the rescue, often enforces laws that target and repress Palestinians, analysts said.
Nevertheless, Noura Erakat, a Palestinian-American activist and legal scholar, said Palestinian advocates can use the crisis in Israel to highlight violations of Palestinian rights.
“I think everything is an opportunity to intervene, even if it’s disruption — to basically short-circuit the media narrative to highlight these things,” she told Al Jazeera.
Erakat added that many Palestinian commentators — through mainstream, alternative and social media — argue that Israel cannot be a democracy if it continues to repress Palestinians living under its control.
She compared this moment to the era of Donald Trump, when his liberal critics consistently criticized the former US president’s domestic and foreign policies, opening a window for criticism of US support for Israel.
Erakat said it was frustrating that Biden and some pro-Israel groups only strongly criticized Netanyahu when it came to internal Israeli affairs, something she says shows that Palestinians “don’t count” for them.
Munayyer also said it was “frustrating” that Israeli violations of Palestinians don’t lead to this kind of response from Washington, but he added that Palestinians should focus on pushing themselves into the conversation.
“We need to look at the ways in which the issue of Palestinian rights can engage the American public through the prism of shared values,” he said.
“If this is really important to the US-Israel relationship, it should be clear that there are no shared values without freedom for Palestinians and equality for Palestinians, and true democracy includes Palestinians.”